YJ01 Four-Character Line
うぞうむぞう
有象無象
Uzōmuzō
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Meaning
riffraff, the rabble
People or things that are many in number but of no account. Used contemptuously of a crowd of worthless people.
Example
炎上すると有象無象が集まってきて、本題が見えなくなる。
Once something blows up online, all sorts of riffraff pile on and the real issue gets lost.
Origin
It comes from the Buddhist term 有相無相, which originally referred to all that exists, things with form and things without. From there it broadened to mean a miscellaneous jumble, and then became a disparaging term for worthless people. In the latter sense an example appears in the Senryū-hyō Mankuawase of 1763.
Sources
- コトバンクkotobank.jp